How a Student Script became a Netflix Hit
Meet Kuba Soltysiak.
Kuba is not only the Co-creator and EP of "Boo, Bitch" a limited series on Netflix starring Lana Condor, but he is one of my past students (USC 2017) who did something years ago, that I believe set him up beautifully for his future success. In fact, I'm not sure he was conscious of it, but as his teacher, I took note of it and I hope after reading this, you'll do the same.
At the start of every new class, I explain how the Hollywood system is set up like the animal kingdom. Each job is a species and your species lives in the wild or in the zoo. Wild animals are the artists, writers, actors, directors or any kind of creative that is not beholden to a consistent "home." They are freelancers who go from job to job or project to project without a steady salary, health benefits, the same co-worker etc..... Zoo Animals, conversely, are agents, managers, executives, business managers, lawyers etc... those who like a consistent paycheck, benefits, familiar co-workers and a more linear career trajectory.
While most of my students tell me they are wild animals, Kuba showed me he was actually a wild animal and wanted to live a very creative career.
I have an assignment called "The Selfie" assignment where each student was tasked to get a selfie in front of 7 talent agencies, 6 studios, 5 networks/streamer and 1 picture in front of where they wanted to work one day. The point of this assignment was to get to know the geography of the LA entertainment industry and build relationships with your classmates (who will become part of your professional network aka Personal Power Directory.)
For the "Dream Job" picture, most students were posed in front of Paramount, HBO, Netflix, Apple or another building, but not Kuba. Kuba's dream job was to make movies with his best friend. And that was the first thing that Kuba did to set him up for success. He identified that he was a "wild animal." He is a true creator. His interests were purely about creation (not the fame, money etc....) and he pursued that. He just kept making cool stuff in school, got great internships and his career unfolded.
Here’s the conversation we had about how he turned a script he wrote in college into a hit show on Netflix.
Q. So how did this all happen?
A. It was a lot of “right place, right time.” My roommate/co-creator, Tim Schauer, was an intern for a production company and was leaving for a job. The producers (now producers of Boo, Bitch) asked him to send them something he had written before he departed. And so, Tim sent them the original Boo, Bitch script that we wrote our senior year at USC.
They really liked it! They asked who we saw as the prototype for the main character and we told them Lana Condor. They just so happened to be friends with her agent and sent the script over to him. He read it and liked it enough to pass it along to Lana. A few months later we met her in person and she told us she was on board!
We pitched to Netflix in January of 2020 and now it’s premiering on Netflix - Friday July 8th!
Q. What’s the timeline of events?
A. We wrote an initial draft of the script in 2018 while Tim and I were studying in our final year at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, both us were Film and TV production majors. Tim had an internship at The Komack Company during the school year where he gave the script to Jonathan Martin and Blake Goza who passed it along to Lana’s agent. In October of 2019, we met with Lana who agreed to attach herself to the project. In January of 2020, we pitched it to Netflix and a week later they said they were interested in it. After that, it was searching for show runners to attach and in December of 2020 the writers room started which we were a part of! The show went into production in August of 2021, we both have small roles in the show so be on the lookout! Boo, Bitch will air on Netflix July 8th. In total, it was about 4 years since conception to being beamed to TVs all around the world!
Q. What did you learn from this experience?
A. How important personal connections can be in this industry. From our producers knowing Lana’s agent, to Tim being a good enough intern where our producers would trust he might have a good script, to even emailing former professors in helping us find a lawyer to sort out contracts.
On our first day at SCA, my entire class was sat down and the dean instructed us to look around the room and said “The people next to you may one day be your boss and you might be their boss. Does everyone know what DBAD stands for? Don’t Be A Dick.” Crude and funny, but it’s something I’ve always thought about. In respect to work and just in general in life, people ought to follow the Golden Rule more!
Q. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything?
A. I mean... if I could stop a global pandemic I would have but alas!
Q. Any advice for those in school now who want to work as a writer one day?
A. I would strongly encourage you to try working with a partner, especially if you’re interested in comedy writing, nothing tells you a joke isn’t working like a silent room.
I know Krista teaches her students to make a video cover-letter, I would say that concept can be applied for writers too. Tim and I created a “trailer” for our show to use in our pitch at Netflix. We used all the footage we could find of Lana and any ghost related shows which we cut together and we even got her to read a voice-over we wrote. This helped us sell what the tone and style of the show could be like. A trailer/video cover letter is helpful to give any pitch some spice to it!
Beside taking Krista’s class (obviously!), I’d recommend taking Barnet Kellman’s Comedy Directing Practicum. Although it’s a class for directing actors, many lessons Tim and I learned in that class we use in our writing to this day!
Lastly, remember that this job, this industry, it comes down to a bunch of adults playing pretend, it’s ridiculous, fun, and at the end of the day COLLABORATIVE. Filmmaking is a team sport - ALWAYS be open to engaging with new ideas. Ride the creativity wave and see where it takes you, you’ll often find yourself surprised where you end up!